


Take me down to Funkytown

by spaceyeli



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, I think?, Idiots in Love, Songfic, Steve likes all music, Team as Family, Tony is a music snob
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-22 23:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23268844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceyeli/pseuds/spaceyeli
Summary: Steve discovers that there's a whole world of new, amazing music out there, and he likes everything. Tony is not very impressed with Steve's favorites, until he is.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55





	Take me down to Funkytown

**Author's Note:**

> As much as I’d like to believe Tony would share my music taste, I really believe he’s actually kind of a music snob and only listens to like 5 songs. But that's okay.
> 
> Thank you to the lovely moonlighttaylor for reading it over!!

“Steve?” Tony walks out of the elevator into the gym, wanting to ask Steve a very quick question about how he’s liking the improvements he made on Steve’s suit. His question is however lost in extremely loud music, an up-tempo beat and some admittedly catchy tunes.

_Slow songs ain’t for skinny hoes_

_Can’t move all of this here to one of those_

“Steve?!” he calls out louder. Steve is lifting an uncountable amount of weights, which Tony is usually very impressed by, but now he can’t focus. Steve turns around and drops the weights on the ground, probably sensing Tony’s growing annoyance with his supersenses somehow. “Tony!” he yells. “How are you?”

_I’m a thick bitch, I need tempo_

_Fuck it up to the tempo_

Steve’s yelling combined with the unknown song is an attack on Tony’s eardrums.

“JARVIS, turn that off.”

_Fuck it up to the temp-_

The music cuts off quite abruptly, leaving a deafening silence and ringing in Tony’s ears behind. “Steve, what the hell was that?”

“What was what? I’m just doing some weightlifting, I’ve already done some work on the punching bag and –“

“No, Steve, I mean the _music_!”

“Oh, that? Sam gave me a playlist of all the songs he thinks I should catch up on. I’ve been listening to songs from the past year in the gym, some of them are really nice!”

Tony groans at that. Steve takes a few steps towards him and shows him his phone. “Don’t be so upset, Tony, it’s really easy! I can just add them to my favorites with a tap on this button, I think it’s really great.”

“Are you kidding me.” Tony squints at the screen of the phone Steve’s holding out to him as he scrolls down in the list of Steve’s favorites. “You were listening to… Lizzo?”

Steve brightens. “Yes! I love her, her songs are very cheerful. Especially to work out to! It’s really energetic.”

Tony rubs a hand over his forehead. “Okay… I’m really going to have to educate you when it comes to music. I clearly can’t leave that to Sam.” He backs away, already furiously tapping away at his phone to start compiling a list of songs that Steve should _really_ know, none of that 2010s-bullshit.

“See you later, Tony!” Steve calls after him while the elevator doors close behind him.

*

After belting their lungs out to the classic We Are The Champions, Tony is sent out of the room by the rest of the team to get them drinks. The Avengers always go out to this karaoke bar after a successful mission (and they’re always successful, so they’re there a lot) The boss of the karaoke bar keeps a room free for them when she’s seen them saving the world on the news. Tony hums the tune of Grease Lightning, the song Thor picks at least once every time they are there (“It is honoring me, how could I not, Man of Iron?”), as the bartender prepares their go-to drinks and puts them on a tray for them. Tony shakes his head, but the catchy musical number just won’t leave his brain. Those damn earworms, he sighs.

Tony returns to the karaoke room, carefully balancing a tray of drinks on one hand while using the other to push open the door. He is stopped in his tracks by the wall of sound coming towards him.

\- _to drag me away from you_

_There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do"_

Tony is frozen in the door opening. It’s honestly a miracle he’s still holding their drinks, and that the glasses haven’t smashed yet due to the sheer volume his teammates are producing.

_I bless the rains down in Africa_

_It’s gonna take some time to do the things we never had_

Steve drags out the last word for way longer than he’s supposed to, which even Tony can recognize without knowing the song.

“Tony!” Steve, smiling widely, turns to him, still frozen in the doorway. “Quick, grab a microphone, you can still join us for the second chorus!”

Tony promptly turns on his heels and marches out, accompanied by the tune as the door slowly shuts behind him.

_The wild dogs cry out in the night…_

*

The mood in the Quinjet is cheerful. The team has just beaten the twentieth wannabe-super villain of the year.  
“At least this one had a good presentation,” Tony muses.

Clint snorts. “Yeah, if you want to call fireworks in the shape of her own face good.”

“Fine, at least it was more interesting than last time, then,” Tony says.

Tony and Clint go on to discuss what villainous flair they would have, with Bruce staring out the window and Steve polishing his shield behind them.

Natasha, who’s flying the plane, interrupts the banter. “How about some music?”

“Yes!” Steve calls out from the back of the jet.

“I’m flying so it’s my pick,” says Natasha.

Some annoying, high pitched screeching fills the small space they’re sitting in. Natasha throws Tony a smirk over her shoulder before focusing on the sky again.

“What _now_ ,” whines Tony.

_Baby can’t you see_

_I’m calling_

“Please make it stop.”

“You have to find the joy in quality music, Anthony,” Thor bellows from the behind them, before joining in with Steve and the rest and yelling along with the lyrics.

_Too high, can’t come down_

_Losing my head, spinning round and round_

_Do you feel me now?_

“I truly think my eardrums have just snapped. None of you should be able to sing that high, and how do you even manage to be _that_ off-key. I hate all of you.”  
“No, you don’t!” Steve grins at him.

_With the taste of your lips I’m on a ride_

_You’re toxic, I’m slipping under_

Tony shakes his head and pops in his (very, very soundproof) earplugs, he’s disapproving of the situation and he is annoyed with all of his teammates and he is totally not staring at Steve’s lips mouthing the lyrics, thinking they might just be toxic too.

*

It’s Friday night, which means it’s time for team dinner. This time, it’s Clint’s turn to cook, which means Bruce will cook and Clint will stand next him, handing him all the wrong utensils (where does he even get those screwdrivers from?). Tony has managed to wrench himself loose from all the work he still has to do, and drag himself up the stairs. When he enters the dining room, it’s empty. He blinks up at the clock. For once, it appears that he’s early.

Well, there’s a first for everything, Tony thinks as he pushes open the door to the kitchen.

“Hey guys, can I help with anyth-“

_You could have been getting down_

_To this… sick…. beat!_

Tony sighs as he’s met with a wall of noise, seeing Clint and Steve jamming out to yet another shitty pop song. Natasha and Sam are sitting on the bar stools near the window, observing the scene, obviously amused.

_My ex man brought his new girlfriend_

_And she’s like oh my god (oh my god)_

_But I’m just going to shake_

Steve notices Tony (like he always does; it must be those super soldier senses) and dances towards him, pointing vigorously.

_And to the fella over there with the hella good hair_

_Won’t you come on over baby, and shake shake shake…_

Tony stares up at Steve, who’s come quite a bit closer than he normally would. He opens his mouth to make a joke about this or something, but before he has the chance to think of something clever Steve bursts out into the next line and starts dancing back and forth in the kitchen, followed by Clint.

Steve and Clint knowing this by heart is worrying, Tony thinks, which he tells Bruce, who’s stirring in something that smells absolutely divine and very edible. See, this is why Tony prefers to be late, he has no patience to wait for things to actually be done cooking when they smell THAT good.

Bruce looks up at him. “This is Taylor Swift. It’s a good song, Tony. You really should open up more to different genres, it’s fun.”

Tony stares back at him in disbelief. ‘I choose to ignore that so that we can stay friends.” He turns on his heels to make himself a cup of coffee.

_Baby I’m just gonna shake shake shake_

_I shake it off_

The song ends. Steve and Clint are looking sweaty, but happy, grinning at each other.

Tony can’t help himself. “Finally, that’s over and now –“

_What it do, babyboo?_

“What NOW?”

“Come on, Tony, loosen up!” Clint yells over some rapper or another singing about sex and taking of clothes or whatever, Tony is not listening and it’s not fun, no matter what anyone says.

“Dancing is fun, Tony!” Steve is moving his hips to the beat, and okay, maybe if pressed Tony would have to admit that it might look like it was a tiny bit fun.

He’s not being pressed now, though, so he just grunts and takes a big sip of his fresh, hot, delicious coffee.

_I’m telling you to loosen up my buttons babe (ah ha)_

Steve does a slut drop right there, in the middle of the kitchen.

“Right,” says Tony once he’s done choking. “I have to continue working on… the thing… Important business, you know how it is, I’ll be right back… for food, dinner, you know the thing.” he vaguely gestures as he backs out the room, unfortunately still catching Natasha and Sam’s matching knowing grins.

*

They’re exiting the VIP lounge in the massive concert venue where AC/DC just finished their concert. Tony smiles to himself, remembering how Steve seemed to really enjoy the show.

He’s been forcing Steve (lovingly) to listen to actual GOOD music ever since he caught him singing along to Call Me Maybe when he was making breakfast (or lunch… or dinner… what is time).

Tony felt personally responsible for reeducating Steve’s music taste, because the rest of the team has appalling taste, as it turns out. And if AC/DC suddenly, so coincidentally, comes to New York to do an extra show in the venue where Tony has had access to the VIP section for years, then it leaves him no other choice then to take Steve to the concert, right?

Anyway, Steve has really seemed to be enjoying himself, even vaguely mouthing the words to Back In Black (no, Tony did not watch Steve’s face instead of the band for the whole entirety of the song, shut up, he would never do such a thing) which made Tony feel all warm and fuzzy inside for some unknown reason.

They have arrived at the car, where Happy opens the door for them and they hop in. As they drive away, going back home, Steve turns to Tony, face excited and open. “Tony, thank you again for taking me here! And for buying me earplugs,” he adds after a second, smiling. “I had a really good time.”

Tony waves his hand between them. “Don’t mention it, someone has to educate you on music and, as it turns out, I’m the only one that qualifies for the position.”

“I like all music I’ve heard up until now, but this was really something else! Thanks again, Tony.”

They settle in a comfortable silence, Steve looking out his windows at the buildings passing by, Tony making notes on his phone. Tony has been zoning out, thinking about a way for Clint’s arrows to return to him after he’s shot them hundreds of meters away, finally jotting down some equations that have been zooming around his head all evening. Then, he notices Steve is humming. His concentration momentarily broken, he focuses on the tune. It’s hard to discern as Steve doesn’t always finish the lines. Surely it must be an AC/DC song, Tony thinks. They’ve just had a full 2 hours of that, some songs _must_ have stuck. Maybe it’s Back In Black, or Thunderstruck, or – wait a second.

“Steve.”

The humming stops. “Yes, Tony?”

“Are you, perchance, humming _Despacito_?”

“Oh, I don’t actually know what song it is! I’m pretty sure it’s Spanish; Clint was dancing to it in the living room the other day. He added it to my playlist when I asked him about it. It’s very catchy!” He smiles innocently at Tony, who dies a little bit inside.

He turns back to his phone, grinding his teeth. “Catchy, indeed…”

He feels Steve smile in his direction, and out of the corner of his eye sees him turn back to look out his window. It’s quiet for a few moments, the only sounds being the soft purring of the engine and Tony furiously tapping on his phone.

Steve starts humming Despacito again.

Tony groans softly, hiding his head inside his hands. He gives up on solving the equations and instead tries to come up with a new game plan. Despacito, _honestly_. And RIGHT after the AC/DC concert, absolute blasphemy. If he didn’t like Steve this much…

*

“That was a good workout, Tony! You’ve really improved on your snap kick, giving me a run for my money,” Steve winks at Tony when they’re walking to the locker room (yes, their gym has a locker room, it wouldn’t really be a gym otherwise now would it).

Tony grins back at him while wiping the sweat of his forehead with a small towel he grabbed from his locker. “Almost got you that one time, did I not?”

“You sure did,” Steve says, audibly smiling very broadly.

Tony hums disapprovingly, throwing a look over his shoulder. “Well, at least the music was better.”

“You’re just saying that because you picked it.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of Arctic Monkeys.”  
“Well, at least they’re from this century!”

“Hey!” Tony starts as he spins around, planning to scold Steve for his teasing. “I’ll have you know that –” Steve is naked.

Tony scrapes his throat. “I’ll have you know that my taste in music is impeccable.”

“Sure, Tony.” Steve rolls his eyes. “Let me introduce something else impeccable to you, then.” He connects his phone to a radio with a little cable (so modern yet so old-fashioned, Tony thinks fondly) and some generic reggaeton starts playing loudly in the locker room.

_Solo, solito en la habitación_

_Busca, que busca de mi calor, oh oh oh_

Steve hums along softly as he steps inside the shower. He has a perfectly good shower in his own rooms, but he still prefers to use the ones down here after a gym session. Tony pulls off his sweat-soaked shirt and puts on a clean one, absolutely definitely not enjoying the music at all.

_Si tu me llama_

_Nos vamos pa tu casa_

_Nos quedamos en la cama_

_Sin pijama, sin pijama_

Now, Tony wouldn’t call himself a genius when it comes to learning languages, but he’s picked up enough Spanish to get the gist of what Steve’s singing. He clears his throat again, and it suddenly becomes very hard to think clearly with Steve naked in the shower only one or two meters away, singing about… not wearing pajamas.

_Baby, hoy no vamos a dormir (no)_

“I gotta… see you later, Steve!” He coughs out, leaving the locker room in a very normal tempo, absolutely not running away, no sir.

*

After another (semi)successful Friday night dinner, Tony is washing the dishes with Clint in the kitchen (because Steve insist that it’s ridiculous to use the dishwasher when they could also do it by hand, go figure) when a tune starts in the living room that triggers a distant, vague memory in Tony’s mind. Really, it’s more like a feeling he gets that transports him back 10 years.

“What is that, what are they doing?” Tony squints his eyes in effort to place the song.

Clint laughs while dunking another plate in the soapy water. “They’re probably playing Just Dance again. Ever since Natasha caught Bruce doing it last week, they’ve been fully addicted to it.”

_I’ve had a little bit too much (oh oh oh oh)_

_All of the people start to rush, start to rush by_

Someone starts singing as soon as the lyrics start, sounding a little bit out of breath.

_A dizzy twister dance_

_Can’t find my drink or man_

Tony looks at the dishes, which are almost done, and makes a decision. He throws the towel he had been doing nothing useful with for the past minute anyway at Clint’s head as he walks towards the living room in curiosity. Clint yelps behind him as Tony pokes his head around the corner and sees Natasha, Bruce, Thor and Steve all holding a Wii controller and doing some vigorous jazz hands, as far as Tony can tell.

“You call this dancing?” He asks nobody in particular, highly confused. He receives no replies as his teammates all do zombie arms and shuffle legs, too caught up in the music (and in Steve’s case, the lyrics too).

_I can’t remember but it’s alright, alright_

_Just dance_

Tony stares as the quartet makes aggressive fists and swings them up and down. Then, they all make some shrugging motions and place their hands on their hips in unison. He is weirdly impressed by their level of synchronicity, but also impressively weirded out because this implies they’ve been playing this… a lot.

_When I come through on the dance floor_

_Checking out that catalogue (hey)_

The arm movements continue and then they all salute. Tony decides he’s seen enough and pulls out his phone to examine some of the schematics he sketched earlier. He slouches down on the couch, with the full intentions of focusing on his work. However, his flailing teammates are apparently impossible to ignore and Tony can’t stop his eyes from being drawn to them.

_Half psychotic, sick hypnotic_

_Got my blueprint, it’s symphonic_

Tony keeps staring at them for the rest of the song, his phone lying forgotten to the side.

“Wanna have a go?” Steve turns to him after the song finishes. He’s grinning widely and slightly sweaty in a way that he sometimes isn’t even after a long sparring session in the gym.

“No, it looks ridiculous, you look ridiculous, I would never.”

“Excuse me,” Natasha says, “We looked incredible and the proof is right there, on the screen – we all got five stars _and_ all the gold moves, Mr Ridiculous. I don’t see you doing that anytime soon.”

“And it’s a good workout too,” Bruce pants, with his hands on his knees and with a slightly red face.

“Select the next song, Bruce!” Thor yells from the side. “Let us do our favorite next and prove to Anthony that we are not ridiculous once and for all!”

Steve smiles. “If you want a go, Tony, just say the word,” and he turns back to the screen to get ready for the next song.

Tony huffs at Steve’s back. “Never,” he says, making a mental note to buy a Wii and have it installed in his workshop to experience this for himself and prove to the rest of them that it is, in fact, nothing but extremely and utterly ridiculous.

He watches on as a man on a cart that’s riding through a desert appears on screen, and all his teammates put their hands behind their heads.

_She’s into superstitions_

_Black cats and voodoo dolls_

Ridiculous.

*

Tony is kicking at the waves as Steve jogs away from him. When he suggested they’d go to the beach to get some fresh air, Tony was thinking more along the lines a slow walk along the surf, talking about everything and nothing. Apparently, Steve’s idea of a calming “walk” was more like running a marathon on top speed.

Well, fine. Then Tony keeps himself entertained with solving the hitch in the right leg of his armor that he’d been pondering over before Steve convinced him to be dragged off to the beach (Tony didn’t really need that much convincing but he could pretend he did) and looking at Steve – because really, someone THAT fit just has to be admired, he’s pretty sure it’s in the constitution.

Tony starts as Steve suddenly appears at his side again.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Oh, I must’ve zoned out. Just… you know,” Tony waves his hands around, distracted by Steve’s red face and slight panting. “Trying to improve.”

“You’re good the way you are, Tony!”

Tony looks down, trying to hide his not-blush, absolutely not blushing, grown man here, thank you very much. “Thanks, Steve. My suit, on the other hand.”

“I like all your suits too, but knowing you, you can make anything better.”

Tony doesn’t really know what to say to that, so they walk in silence for a while, the sand crunching underneath their shoes.

And then, Tony’s expecting it at this point, Steve fills the silence with soft singing.

_Go down go down go down, yeah_

_Let me see you go to town, yeah_

Tony blinks. He can’t be hearing this right.

_If you’re down boy, really down_

_Baby, let me watch you go to town_

This can’t be an accident anymore. Can it?

_It’s your one chance, baby,_

_Never or now, yeah, yeah, yeah, eh_

He _has_ to be doing this on purpose. Tony scrapes his throat, very subtly, if you ask him. “What are you singing, Steve?”

“I think it’s called Go To Town? It’s by this singer who changes hair color so often, I really like her.”

“Uh uh. Sure. Yep.” Tony shakes his head to clear it a bit and they keep walking onwards, Steve apparently having had enough of running circles around Tony.

Steve starts humming. It might be better for Tony’s mental state and self-control if Steve doesn’t sing the words that accompany this tuny, but Tony secretly wishes he would continue.

*

The second-hand bookstore about a fifteen-minute walk away from the tower hosts a disco evening once every month, and yes, that is as cool as it sounds. Tony never really was much of a book-guy, but Steve very much is, so apparently that means Tony kind of is now too. They’ve been enjoying the disco balls and snacks, and have moved on to looking through the books to see if they can bring anything back for their teammates. Hey Ya by Outkast fades out, and a new song attacks Tony’s ears. He sees Steve immediately perk up out of the corner of his eye.

_My anaconda…_

“Don’t,” groans Tony, rubbing his hand over his forehead.

Steve whoops, pointing at him from the corner where he’s been browsing. “Want none unless you got buns, hun!”

“Unbelievable,” Tony says as he turns back to the shelf on contemporary art he was checking out. And if he is secretly smiling to himself, nobody needs to know, especially not the nosy student who always helps out the store on disco evenings, and looks too knowledgeable for her own good as she’s smirking at him.

Disco nights should be cancelled.

*

It’s Tuesday, and the team has called an impromptu movie night. Steve came down to drag Tony from his workshop, and really, has Tony ever been able to refuse Steve? It was Thor’s turn to choose, and Thor always turns to the Internet for advice on what’s the best of the best. Tony settles down on his spot on the loveseat, next to Steve, and pulls a blanket over himself. His mind, which had been fully focused on his project five minutes ago, is slowly starting to become aware of the fact that he’s been awake for… Tony sighs. If he can’t remember how long he’s exactly been awake for, Pepper and Steve would probably say it’s too long.

Bruce is making popcorn in the kitchen while Natasha is selecting the film. Tony feels his eyes close slowly. He blinks a few times, and then thinks that it’s probably fine to close his eyes for a few seconds, right? The film hasn’t even started yet and…

_someBODY ONCE TOLD ME_

_The world is going to roll me_

Tony jerks awake. “What? Told you what? What’s the emergency? What’s going on?”

“Oh, I’m so sorry Tony! I didn’t see you were asleep.” Steve looks at him sheepishly. “It’s just… you know, Shrek.”

Tony, still half asleep, looks at him dumbly. “Shrek.”

“Yeah, the best love story with the best soundtrack of the century. Except… maybe Shrek 2 has an even better one. That one has Funkytown, you know?”

Tony closes his eyes in pain. He can feel Steve laughing at him still as some gross gurgling and glass breaking sound from the speakers.

_Hey now, you’re an all star_

_Get your game on, go play_

Steve softly elbows Tony and scoots a bit closer. “Hey, rock star, want some popcorn? I had Bruce make salty popcorn just for us.”

Tony grumbles, but does lean into Steve a bit more when he puts the bowl of popcorn on his lap.

_All that glitters is gold_

_Only shooting stars break the mold_

*

_Yeah, so tell me girl if every time we touch_

“That’s it, that’s it, no more.”

_You get this kind of rush_

_Baby say yeah yeah yeah_

Steve just grins wider as he continues singing and dancing. Steve has taken to putting on his favorites playlist when he’s cooling down and stretching (read: performing) on his yoga mat in the living room after his morning run.

_If you don’t wanna take it slow_

_And you just wanna take me home_

“I draw the line at 2012-boybands. No, Steve, seriously. If you want to keep me around, you better shut up.” Tony is awake early for once, only having been witness to this ridiculous habit of Steve’s a handful of times so far.

_And let me kiss you!_

Steve finishes the chorus, jumps on the couch, dancing along. “Make me!”

That’s what drives Tony over the edge. He tackles Steve, making him fall backwards on the couch.

“Hey!” yelps Steve. “I was just-“

Tony cuts him off by smashing their lips together. That works incredibly well, Tony thinks, why hasn’t he tried that before? Then his brain shuts up too as Steve enthusiastically responds, flipping them over so that Tony is lying underneath him while never breaking the kiss.

When they finally break apart, Steve grins down at him happily.

“Well,” Tony says, “that worked like a charm.”

Steve opens his mouth, to what Tony assumes answer him, but instead…

_Oh I just wanna show you off to all of my friends_

_Making them drool down their chinny-chin chi-_

Well, Tony thinks, as he pulls Steve down to shut him up (make out) again, they’ll just have to keep kissing forever.

Problem solved.

(for now)

*

**Author's Note:**

> Songs mentioned/listened to in this fic:  
> Tempo - Lizzo  
> We are the champions - Queen  
> Africa - Toto  
> Toxic - Britney Spears  
> Shake it off - Taylor Swift  
> Buttons - The Pussycat Dolls  
> Back in Black - AC/CD  
> Thunderstruck - AC/DC  
> Despacito - Luis Fonsi  
> I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor - Arctic Monkeys  
> Sin Pijama - Becky G  
> Just Dance - Lady Gaga  
> Livin' La Vida Loca - Ricky Martin  
> Go To Town - Doja Cat  
> Hey Ya - OutKast  
> Anaconda - Nicki Minaj  
> All Star - Smash Mouth  
> Funkytown - Lipps Inc  
> Kiss You - One Direction
> 
> I love ALL of these songs (I know most of the lyrics by heart which means I’ve listened to them at least a million times, and I know the just dances by heart) and I think Tony should really open himself up to more music genres – but I’m sure Steve will expose him to that.
> 
> I'm thinking of writing short, short epilogue to this fic because there's one more song that I want in here! 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed!!


End file.
